Jakarta (ANTARA) - Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan has called for sanctions against ministries, government agencies, and state-owned companies whose procurements fail to meet the mandate of the domestic product purchase program.

"We urge Mr. President Joko Widodo to pursue mitigation efforts (to address) issues in the implementation of domestic products purchase, among which is through, first, reward and punishment; moreover, for institutions that do not meet minimum 95 (percent) of the target of goods and services budget," he said here on Wednesday.

The minister, who is also serving as the head of the national team on domestic product purchases, delivered the remarks during the “2023 Domestic Products Purchase Business Matching” at Senayan Sports Palace in Jakarta.

According to Pandjaitan, six achievements have been made in the promotion of domestic MSME (micro, small, and medium enterprise) product use as part of the Proudly Made in Indonesia Movement, following the issuance of Presidential Instruction Number 2 of 2022.

First, Rp762.7 trillion (US$50 billion) has been generated through purchase transactions made by institutions, regional governments, and state-owned enterprises, he said.

“The National Development Planning Agency and Statistics Indonesia have estimated that the economic impact is in the range of 1 percent, which supports economic growth achievement of 5.31 percent," he informed.

Second, the number of domestic products on the e-catalogue has reached 2.049 million, which is higher than the initial target of one million products, he pointed out.

The third achievement has been the launch of the domestic government credit card in August 2022, he said.

The fourth has been the recent integration of government goods and services data, a first-of-its-kind initiative in national history, Pandjaitan disclosed.

"This integration can be done among systems of the Domestic Affairs Ministry, Finance Ministry, and National Public Procurement Agency. So, everything we integrate in stages right now. We also say thank you to regional governments," the minister added.

The fifth achievement has been the implementation of the contract for domestic laptop supply, which can help slash expenses by Rp1.8 trillion (US$117 million). The initiative can also create jobs and encourage innovative ideas from Indonesian youth, he said.

The sixth achievement has been the launch of the Proudly Traveling in Indonesia initiative on December 13, 2022. It is expected to push up the number of visits to 1.2 billion–1.4 billion in 2023 to generate Rp3,200 trillion (US$208 billion) for the tourism sector.

Another measure to promote domestic product purchases has been the setting of the target of getting five million domestic products listed on the e-catalogue and generating Rp500 trillion (US$32.5 billion) in transactions through the e-catalogue, the minister said.

He then called for an improvement in the business process and for a legal basis for the domestic products purchase policy through the revision of the Domestic Components Contents evaluation, the ratification of the Draft Bill on Public Goods and Services Procurement by August 2023 at the latest, as well as the simplification of regulations on incentives and disincentives, among others.

Minister Pandjaitan also sought a reduction in imports made by state-owned enterprises and urged them to instead assist in the development of domestic industries that can substitute import products.

He then called for the further integration of goods and services procurement data and urged everyone — institutions, regional governments, and state-owned companies — to prioritize domestic products in their purchases.

“The electronic-based government purchases system will make us more advanced in the future. As a closing statement: there are no other countries that will care about Indonesian products other than Indonesians themselves. We have to be proud to be Indonesians," he remarked.

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Translator: Sella P G, Mecca Yumna
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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